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UTEP seeks rare closing victory

Bret Bloomquist, El Paso Times
Published 11:11 a.m. MT Nov. 27, 2015

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UTEP running back TK Powell rushed for more than 100 yards last week, after spending the first three months on the scout team.(Photo: RUBEN R. RAMIREZ/EL PASO TIMES)Buy Photo

The goals the UTEP football team set for itself before the season started are long gone, but the Miners can still achieve what for them is the rarest of feats in their season finale Saturday at North Texas.

Going back to 1987, UTEP is 1-24 in its last game of the year, but rarely has an opportunity beckoned like this one. The Mean Green are 1-10 and like the Miners they are playing for the seniors, for next year, for pride, and in their case, to avoid the second 11-loss season in program history and send a soon-to-be-gone coach (interim Mike Canales) out with a win.

Those aren't the grandest of goals or the biggest motivators, and the team that can buy into them on a game expected to be played in a 45-degree rain is the most likely winner.

"They're probably a lot like us," coach Sean Kugler said. "They're a wounded animal, but wounded animals are dangerous. ... I think they'll be playing for their job. When you're in that situation, anything will go. We can expect anything in that game. We can expect trick plays and for them to pull out all the stops to win.

"Right now my focus is on North Texas and getting these guys one last opportunity to play together as a team and fight."

The script for the game is predictable. In the best of weather these are two teams built around running the ball and no one is looking for the best of weather. The combined rushes could go over 100 and North Texas interim coach Mike Canales joked that the game could be over in an hour and a half.

UTEP will rotate its two healthy quarterbacks, Ryan Metz and Kavika Johnson, and a number of running backs as it looks for the right formula. They do this a week after lighting up the best run defense in Conference USA, Louisiana Tech, and now they are going against the worst run defense in the league. North Texas is also last in total defense and scoring defense.

TK Powell "will carry the ball, Jeremiah Laufasa is healthier, Trayvon Hughes is healthier, Darrin Laufasa, all those guys will get carries," coach Sean Kugler said. "The guy who is the hottest will get the most carries."

For Metz and Johnson the game is a chance to lay down a marker for the spring, when there at least nominally will be another quarterback competition.

"Personally, I've had an up and down season, I've got a lot to work on, a lot to do to get better," Metz said. "This game is very big, a big step going into the spring. Most importantly, this is for the seniors. This will be our last time together, to play together and we want to go out on a high."

UTEP probably won't throw a lot, but needs to be efficient when it does.

"This is going to be a weather game, we have to focus on catching the ball," receiver Jaquan White said. "We've been doing wet-ball drills, we need to be balanced with the run and the pass."

Defensively the task looks manageable. North Texas has been capable running the ball, but ranks last in C-USA in pass offense, pass efficiency, total offense and scoring offense.

UTEP always starts with stopping the run and this week they try to do that against a team that doesn't have other good options to move the football.

"They are very big running it, they run it as much as anybody in the country and we have to stop it," linebacker Alvin Jones said.

Said end Roy Robertson-Harris: "They've got a good running game, they've got a really good running back and quarterback. They like to run it a lot, there will be a lot of power read, we've got to get in the gaps."

"We have to make sure our eyes are where they are supposed to be," corner Traun Roberson said. "Their quarterback is a good runner, we have to make sure our eyes are right."

For all that, this game will probably hinge on turnovers. Both teams are bad at taking it away and both teams give it away frequently. They are a combined minus-18 in turnover margin and the team that incrementally improves in this game is the likely winner

"This will be a weather game, both teams run the ball," Kugler said. "It will come down to who can force the most turnovers and capitalize on them. It comes down to ball security."

It also comes down to finding some motivation in a lost season.

"I just want to win, this is my last game here, I'm going to do everything in my power to win it," Robertson-Harris said.

If UTEP does, it will mark the second time in a quarter-century they've gone out that way.

Bret Bloomquist may be reached at 546-6151; bbloomquist@elpasotimes.com; @bretbloomquist on Twitter.